


(gate)crash into you

by reylo_mo (writermo)



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, I'm really struggling with the tags here please hmu if you have suggestions, MeetCute, One Shot, Post Bendemption, Romance, Weddings, hux phasma rose kaydel finn poe and luke are mentioned but not pictured, mention of minor car accident, oh and bazine and snap are in this, rey likes love and food
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:02:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24608146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writermo/pseuds/reylo_mo
Summary: Rey makes a habit of gatecrashing wedding receptions. Kylo notices her at one as she's loading up her plate with free food.
Relationships: Background Hux/Phasma - Relationship, Background Rose/Kaydel, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, background Finn/Poe
Comments: 72
Kudos: 242





	(gate)crash into you

Nursing his glass of whiskey, Kylo eyed the stunning brunette with the wavy-haired bob from across the room.

He had a very strong suspicion that she was not actually supposed to be here at Hux and Phasma’s wedding reception, and he had a few solid reasons to back this up.

First of all, she was wearing a goddamned sundress. To Hux and Phas’ wedding. Granted, the yellow number fit her perfectly, showing off her tanned shoulders, tiny waist, and legs that went on for a mile, but it was a sundress all the same. He had it on good authority that some of the other guests here were wearing couture, however uncalled for it may be.

Yellow sundress aside, she also just didn’t look like part of Hux and Phasma’s crowd. Kylo would know this. Even outside of work, the three of them were all cut from the same cloth — born of the same circle of well-off, entitled families. Kylo didn’t recognise this girl from any one of the snub-nosed people he’d grown up rubbing shoulders with, and she sure as hell hadn’t been working at Snoke & Co.

He’d have noticed.

Thirdly, and perhaps most tellingly, they’d arrived at the reception at the same time, and he’d been right behind her when the lady at the front desk had asked for her name with an artificial grimace.

“Kira Andor,” the girl had supplied with a smile. Kylo had noted that her accent was British, purely because it was a little bit out of the ordinary, and not because he was trying to focus on anything besides her ass in that sundress.

The lady tapped away at her tablet. “There’s no-one of that name on the list.”

“Oh? There must be some mistake. Hux and I go way back.”

Kylo raised his brows at that. Far be it from him to claim that he knew every acquaintance in Hux’s life, but he really couldn’t see Armitage and this girl going very far back at all.

But it seemed that in addition to a splendid arse and pretty voice, this girl was also blessed with an abundance of luck — because someone came to distract the cerberus at the welcome desk, and the wily Kira managed to slip in without being noticed.

Except, of course, by Kylo. And now he’d taken to _noticing_ her all evening.

His eyes followed her as she made a beeline for the buffet table and piled food onto her plate to impressive heights. He watched as she swiped a flute of champagne before slipping into an empty seat at a table (she was lucky that Hux and Phas had opted against assigned seating in the end). And he kept looking as she began to devour her food and drink at a frankly impossible pace — to her credit, she did pause to smile and clap when Hux and Phasma made their grand entrance, but she resumed her attention to her plate very soon after.

When she got up after Hux and Phasma’s first dance, Kylo was certain that she had eaten her fill and was now about to leave, but he felt his jaw drop slightly when he saw that she was actually just returning back to the buffet table for more.

Before Kylo knew what he was doing, he was on his feet and had crossed the room to where the little gatecrasher was enthusiastically loading her plate with a myriad of desserts. It was only when he found himself a few feet away from her that he hesitated. What was his plan, here? Was he really going to confront her about her uninvited presence at his stuck-up friends' wedding?

“Should you really be eating on the clock?” he heard a sneering voice say.

Kylo snapped out of his reverie and saw that a couple of attractive, well-dressed women had beat him to approaching Kira. He recognised one of them — Bazine Netal, a close friend of Phasma’s from Snoke & Co and Ben’s former colleague.

Bazine was a real piece of work.

The girl Kira blinked up at Bazine through her tower of macarons. “I’m sorry?” she said, that accent ringing through to Ben’s bones once again.

“She said,” Bazine’s companion chimed in, voice positively dripping in venom, “should you really be eating on the clock?”

The girl shrugged and carefully balanced another tartlet on her plate. “I don’t work here.”

Both women took their time in giving Kira an obvious once-over. Bazine laughed, well-practised and scornful. "Then what are you doing here, sweetie?"

Just like when he'd first walked over here, Ben only realised he'd stepped up behind Kira when he had his arm curled around her and his hand resting upon her waist. "She's with me," he heard himself saying, and it took him a second to register that the words were indeed coming out of his mouth. 

***

Rey was jolted with surprise when she felt an arm snake around her middle just as she was about to give these two snarky Barbie dolls a putting-down. "She's with me," a deep, velvety voice said right in her ear, and she looked up, and up, and up, at what could only be described as an absolute tree of a man dressed impeccably in a form-fitting tuxedo.

She realised with another shock that it was _him_ , the hot guy behind her at the reception desk earlier whom she'd been subtly checking out. At the time she'd noted that he had arrived alone, but she'd quickly told her brain to get over it – men who looked like that were very rarely available. Besides, that wasn't why she was here at this wedding. 

Yet here he was, inexplicably claiming her as his — and was it even _possible_ that his hand was somehow spanning from the small of her back to front of her waist? Who even _had_ hands that big? 

" _She's_ with _you_?" The look on the blonde one's face could have curdled milk.

The dark-haired Regina George raised an eyebrow by way of reaction. "I didn't know you were _involved_ , Ren."

"Maybe because I keep my _involvements_ private, Bazine," Rey's mystery man shot back in that deep, level voice of his. "Now if you'll excuse us, my date owes me a dance." And he gently took Rey's painstakingly heaped plate of sugary goodness out of her hands, ignored her squeak of protest as he put it aside, and led her to the dance floor. 

Rey was quick to glare at her unwanted rescuer the moment they finally found themselves face to face. "I was planning to eat that, you know," she informed him, trying to ignore the way his piercing gaze gave her butterflies in her stomach. His face was as beautiful as the rest of him. Dotted with moles, with an aquiline nose and those plush lips — she licked her own without thinking. 

He laughed, a quiet and throaty chuckle. "I bet you were." They were swaying in time to the slow song that was playing, his hands on her waist and hers on his shoulders. Rey was by no means short, but it was a stretch for her to reach for him in her flats — she never bothered to wear heels to the weddings she gatecrashed. 

She waited for him to say something else, but her giant redwood seemed content to keep moving together in silence, and she couldn't have that. "Why did you do that?" she demanded.

"Why did I do what?"

"Say I was your date. I'm not."

A corner of his mouth quirked upwards. "Well, you're also not on the guest list — Kira." 

Rey let out a huff of surprise. "Huh. So the hot guy in line behind me turns out to be an eavesdropper."

The other corner of his mouth lifted up to join its counterpart. "You think I'm hot?"

"Why are you helping me?" she evaded. 

He let out a breath of his in turn. "Well. I don't know. Maybe I just didn't want you to miss out on the free food."

Rey laughed, unabashed. "And yet you forcibly parted me from my glorious dessert plate."

He shrugged. "But now I get to dance with you. I'm a selfish man."

So they were flirting now. It had been awhile since that had happened for Rey, but this was definitely it. She could feel her cheeks colouring because she was _flirting_ with this absolute hunk of a man, at a fancy-ass wedding reception she hadn't even been invited to. "I don't even know your name," she said. 

"It's Ben. Ben Solo."

Rey frowned at him. "Did that lady get your name wrong on purpose?"

He laughed again. "No, but I wouldn't put it past her. Most people here know me as Kylo Ren. That was the name I went by when I worked in my previous company."

"Wow," said Rey. "You know, most people who change jobs just update their LinkedIn profiles."

Ben smirked at her. "Most people don't turn up to weddings uninvited."

She rolled her eyes. "Touché," she admitted. "My name's not really Kira. I'm Rey. Rey Johnson."

Ben's eyes crinkled up at the corners and she wondered what would happen if her knees gave way beneath her completely. She could only hope he was as strong as he looked and had the decency to hold her up, because she was not looking forward to collapsing in front of all these snobbish people. 

"Rey Johnson, wedding crasher?"

"That's Rey Johnson, independent bookstore owner, to you."

"Nice," he said, and his tone was so genuine and appreciative that Rey wondered what he had in common with all these grand folk who had been glaring daggers at her since she'd arrived. Well, besides his obvious good looks and the thousand-dollar suit he was wearing. Even his cologne smelled expensive — a woody scent with just a hint of something spicy. 

Rey sighed, figuring that she owed him an explanation. "This is the fifth wedding I've crashed in three months," she confessed. 

Ben blinked. "That's… a lot of weddings," he observed. "Are you really that desperate for food?"

She gave his shiny leather-bound foot a little stomp. "Do you really think I'm some sort of freeloading glutton?"

"Well, I have been watching how much you've eaten all evening — "

Rey had to fight down the urge to blush once more at his admission that he'd been watching her, even as she wondered if she should be slightly creeped out. "Four of my closest friends are getting married," she blurted out. "To each other."

He raised a brow. "That's an interesting modern relationship."

Rey rolled her eyes. "It's two separate couples. They just got engaged at the same time. And I've been appointed maid of honour — and best man — at both weddings."

"Wow," said Ben. "Congratulations to them — and to you, I suppose."

Rey nodded. She _was_ happy, absolutely thrilled for Rose and Kaydel and Finn and Poe. But a horrible, selfish part of her still made her cry bitterly on those long nights when she realised that four of her closest friends — her _only_ friends — would soon be celebrating their happily-ever-afters; something that Rey seemed to be the only one who was yet to find. 

She soldiered on with her explanation, vaguely wondering if Ben was even interested enough to hear the rest of it. "And I just want it to be perfect for them, you know? Since I'll be doing a bulk of the planning for _two_ weddings in the next year, and I've never attended a wedding before — "

"You've never attended a wedding before?"

Rey shook her head. "Do you think I'd be attending all these strangers' weddings for research if I had?"

"How old are you?"

"I'm twenty-four."

"Christ, I feel old. Well, surely you might have attended a cousin's wedding, or — "

Rey gave him a bright smile. "Never had any family. Foster care."

Ben's face slipped into a more serious expression, and Rey kicked herself for revealing her sad sob story to this handsome stranger. She didn't even know why she was telling him about the wedding shenanigans in the first place. Perhaps she had had too much champagne, or perhaps it had been too long since she'd been held close like he was holding her, and the false intimacy of touch was getting to her — 

"Anyway," said Rey briskly, "I decided to attend a couple of weddings to get my bearings around the whole thing and looked for those with all the location details on the Internet. It wasn't hard. People post everything online these days."

"I'm sure," said Ben, amused. 

"I thought I'd stop after I attended a few," Rey admitted. "That said... here I am, at wedding number five, because it got addictive after a while, you know? The whole ceremony of two people who are so certain that they're it for each other that they want to stand up in front of all their friends and family to declare their lifelong love. It just — seems improbable, and yet it must be possible, because it happens to people. Quite a lot. Like their own personal miracle."

She was valiantly fighting the tears that came to her eyes unbidden — wow, maybe she had hit the drinks too hard — when she realised two things. One, Ben Solo was staring at her. He had stopped swaying to the music and was just standing still, holding her, and staring at her, and Rey realised a bit too late that she may have said a lot too much. He probably thought she was some sort of _psycho._ A very sad, very lonely, and altogether very pathetic psycho.

"I'm sorry — " she began, but then she also realised that a very insistent buzzing was coming from Ben's suit jacket. And had been for awhile, while she'd blubbered on and on. She nodded at him. "Did you want to get that?"

He shook his head like it was bothering him. "No," he said, just as his phone stopped buzzing. "Rey — "

"Oh, and — " A thought came to her and she rushed to say it. "Just so you know, I don't go around putting a bunch of brides and grooms out of pocket. I only loaded up on the food here at your friend's wedding because — well, to be honest, it looked like they could afford it."

Rey was rewarded for this at least with the return of his small, up-at-the-corners smile, but the intensity of his gaze was starting to alarm her. "They can," he confirmed. He leaned, closing in on what little space there was between them. "Listen, Rey — "

And he stopped as his phone sharply resumed buzzing. 

"Ben, maybe you should — "

"Okay," he said, leaning back, but without letting go of her. "Okay. Just give me one moment." He fished out his phone from his pocket and jammed it to his ear without even looking at it. "Solo."

Rey fidgeted. She guessed that Ben wanted to keep his conversation short and then get back to her, but slow dancing with a man who was in the middle of a phone call was awkward business. She tried to avert her eyes and even harder not to listen, but of course that proved impossible. 

However, there wasn't much to try not to eavesdrop on. Ben was silent for a while, before barking out a "Where?" quickly followed up by "I'll be there soon."

He ended the call and Rey tried for a smile. "Sounds like someone wants to cut in on this dance," she quipped. She shouldn't be experiencing this sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. They'd met, had one conversation where she'd greatly embarrassed herself, and now he had to go. She didn't even know a thing about him.

"Like you wouldn't believe," muttered Ben darkly, running a hand through his hair and then reaching down to take Rey's. "Rey, I need to leave. My uncle just got hit by a car — that was him on the line, he's back home and he said he's fine — but I should drive him to the hospital for a check up anyway."

"Oh, gosh," said Rey, as Ben wove them in between swaying couples to get off the dance floor. "I'm so sorry to hear that — I hope he's alright!"

It looked a lot like Ben was refraining from rolling his eyes. "He's probably fine," he said, stopping as they reached a spot by the side of the room and turning towards her. "He just has this absolute _knack_ for popping up right when I'm in the middle of something." And the _look_ that he gave her — Rey found her toes curling inside her well-worn flats. She tried to school herself into discipline. The man's uncle just got into an accident, for god's sake. 

"How did you get here, Rey?" Ben asked her, and she forced herself to pay attention to what he was saying. Right. Logistics. Because this really attractive man she had just met was leaving. "Do you need me to call you a ride home?"

"I drove here," she said, then went for a joke. "You know, in case I needed a quick getaway."

"Unfortunately, I'm the one who needs to make a quick exit now," said Ben regretfully. He pushed his phone into her hand. "Rey. Give me your number. I'll call you. Just key it in before I go."

Almost in a daze, Rey tapped her number into his phone and handed it back to Ben. She wished she'd thought to put a flirty emoji of some sort next to her name, but Ben's device was a lot larger than her tiny budget phone and she wasn't even sure if she'd saved it properly. God, she hoped she had. She wasn't about to ask for it back to check and look like a total idiot. 

"Thank you," murmured Ben. His face was very close to Rey's again, somehow even closer than it had been when they were dancing. For a beat they both stood there, neither one saying a word, until Ben finally nodded and stepped back. 

"Enjoy your dessert, Rey," he said, and then he was gone. 

***

Ben didn't call.

Rey gave herself an entire week of hovering over her phone before she forced herself to accept that it just wasn't going to happen. Maybe she really hadn't keyed her number in properly; maybe he just wasn't interested. She tried looking him up on social media, but the man was a ghost. She supposed some things just weren't meant to be. 

Rey had thought about telling her friends about the rich hot guy who had made her insides melt, just for a laugh, but then she'd have to explain how they'd met — and Rey hadn't told them about the gatecrashing thing. In fact, Ben was the only person she'd ever spoken to about it — well, possibly because he'd been the only one to catch her.

It seemed silly, now. She had originally planned to sneak into another wedding in a week or so, but she didn't think she would go anymore. After all, like she had confessed to Ben, she really didn't need to do any more research on weddings than she already had, and she really couldn't be crashing weddings for the rest of her life. 

So Rey got on with things. She opened up the shop each morning, sold books, closed up, and went back home. She met Rose for a lunch break one day, Finn and Poe came over for a movie one night, and then on the weekend the whole gang went out for drinks — Rose and Kaydel, Finn and Poe, and Rey as the trusty fifth wheel. In her spare time she helped the couples assemble moodboards for their respective weddings, and reread her dog-eared copy of Pride & Prejudice — her go-to literature whenever she felt particularly in need of comfort. 

And then on the second Monday after that fateful wedding she'd gatecrashed, her shop assistant Snap handed her a letter. 

"What's this?" Rey asked, frowning at the elegant, handwritten script spelling out her name and the store's address.

Snap shrugged. He and Rey got along fine, but he was a man of few words. 

Wondering who still wrote snail mail these days, Rey opened the envelope, careful not to rip the expensive-looking material. Inside was a beautifully designed invitation to the wedding of some people she didn't know and an accompanying handwritten letter. 

_Dear Rey,_

_I apologise for not calling as promised, but that proved quite difficult to do seeing as you didn't actually give me your number. Here's to hoping that you forgot to press save rather than use this as a tactic to let me down gently, or it would make me having tracked down the one independent bookstore owned by Rey Johnson a slightly awkward affair._

_My foster sister Jannah is getting married next month (see attached), and while I don't_ _need_ _a date, it would be much more pleasant to go with someone who seems to love weddings as much as you do. I hope I won't be spoiling the fun for you by officially inviting you as my plus one, or perhaps we can sneak in together through the back._

_On the off-chance that you do want to go with me, and that we can maybe get to know each other a little better before I introduce you to all my family, here's my number._

_With hopeful regards,_

_Ben C. Solo_

Rey brought a hand to her mouth, but a breathy laugh escaped from it all the same. Ben had wanted to call. She hadn't imagined the connection between them. And he'd given her his number through a _handwritten letter_. With the actual invitation to his _sister's_ wedding. Good lord, the man was ridiculous. 

She traced a finger over the beautiful penmanship, feeling the grooves where the tip of his pen had scratched into the crisp writing paper, and then dug her phone out of her pocket. She tapped out Ben's number and raised her phone to her ear with a shaking hand. This was happening. Maybe nothing would come out of it, maybe it wouldn't lead anywhere — but Rey had a _feeling_ as she heard the first dial tone start. 

A feeling that maybe her own personal miracle was about to begin. 

He answered the call just like he had the day she'd had her arms looped around his neck. "Solo."

Rey smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked this little meet-cute one shot! The idea kind of just popped into my head one day, although I'm really terrified I read it as a prompt somewhere online and didn't realise it and just subsumed the idea as my own lol – if this really is the case and isn't just my paranoia speaking please do let me know and I'll give credit where it's due. Thank you for reading - comments and kudos are much loved!
> 
> If you liked this fic, you can also check out my other modern AU featuring [besotted mutual pining reylo and Alderaanian braids](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24129664/chapters/58094446). I also have an [arranged marriage AU WIP](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23820517) if you want to check that out too!


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